Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #383-Jermaine with Bomade Vodka

Transcript

Brewsers #383-Jermaine with Bomade Vodka · Brewsers

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers podcast about beer, coffee, booze and bruisers.
0:23
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Roddy John, and today we talked to
0:25
Speaker 1: Jermaine with Bombade Vodka. We talked about how bomb Maade
0:29
Speaker 1: got started, the growth of the brand, and so much more.
0:32
Speaker 1: If you guys have not heard of Bombade vodka, you
0:35
Speaker 1: are in for a treat. This stuff is delicious and dangerous.
0:38
Speaker 1: So you don't want to hear from me, You want
0:40
Speaker 1: to hear from him. So, without further ado, here is
0:42
Speaker 1: Jermaine with Bombade Vodka. I would like to welcome the
1:01
Speaker 1: show Jermaine with bomb Made Vodka. How are you doing today, sir,
1:06
Speaker 1: good evening.
1:07
Speaker 2: How you doing?
1:08
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. So for those listening kind of paintings
1:11
Speaker 1: a word picture, where are you at and what's going
1:12
Speaker 1: on around you?
1:15
Speaker 2: I'm in the man cave. Just got in checking out
1:20
Speaker 2: the playoffs NBA playoffs.
1:23
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, the finals on both sides start tonight. Yes,
1:27
Speaker 1: who do you have for the for the playoffs? Or
1:29
Speaker 1: who do you have for the finals?
1:30
Speaker 2: Sorry? Nicks and.
1:35
Speaker 3: I'm starting to lean towards San Antonio. How they look
1:38
Speaker 3: in to night? Okay, Nicks all the way I believe.
1:45
Speaker 1: I mean, I think New York City will go absolutely
1:48
Speaker 1: nuts if Nicks actually go all the way. Not we
1:50
Speaker 1: go all the way, but like literally win and everything.
1:53
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's like totally overdue.
1:58
Speaker 1: Spike Lee will do his own doc documentary, probably an
2:01
Speaker 1: eighteen part series, and he'll love it. Right, Well, let's
2:07
Speaker 1: go all over back in time. What is your earliest
2:09
Speaker 1: memory of alcohol.
2:14
Speaker 3: Being a little kid getting sent to the back room
2:17
Speaker 3: while the old heads will be odde and sipping. That's
2:23
Speaker 3: my earliest memories of it. So that's my earliest memories.
2:30
Speaker 3: But to be honest, I was never really a drinker until.
2:35
Speaker 2: Until like my late twenties.
2:39
Speaker 1: I said, what was it about that kind of just
2:43
Speaker 1: deterred you.
2:48
Speaker 2: I just wasn't. I was just more of a smoking
2:50
Speaker 2: than a drinker.
2:51
Speaker 3: Like I would sip straight socially, but I wouldn't just
2:54
Speaker 3: be in the house making me a nightcap dread social.
3:01
Speaker 2: For sure.
3:02
Speaker 1: No, that makes sense. Yeah, I was. I didn't come
3:05
Speaker 1: a smoke until later, and then it was just the
3:07
Speaker 1: fine balance of both of them.
3:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, the fine balance.
3:11
Speaker 3: See, Yeah, that's where that's where That's where I was at,
3:16
Speaker 3: getting the fine balance.
3:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, some people try to go too hard in the
3:20
Speaker 1: alcohol and then switch to smoke, and it was like, Nope,
3:22
Speaker 1: that's not that's not how that one's going to work
3:24
Speaker 1: out for you. And then they get the spins and
3:25
Speaker 1: then it's bad news.
3:28
Speaker 2: Yep.
3:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well I read that bombay started, or yeah,
3:34
Speaker 1: bomb aide started by y'all making your own lemonade vodka
3:37
Speaker 1: at the house and then the family calling it bomb
3:39
Speaker 1: lemonade with which obviously turned into bomb aide. Tell us
3:42
Speaker 1: the story because this is amazing.
3:45
Speaker 2: Oh snap, you don't there's some research. It started out
3:50
Speaker 2: started out were me in.
3:55
Speaker 3: Me and my now deceased wife started it out saying,
4:04
Speaker 3: like you just said, we was calling it. It was
4:08
Speaker 3: started derived from bomb ass lemonade. The name became we
4:12
Speaker 3: started it with bombingade.
4:14
Speaker 2: Mm hmm hm.
4:16
Speaker 3: Long story, Sure, we took the ass part out for
4:21
Speaker 3: marketing purpose, called it bombade, and it just kind of
4:26
Speaker 3: stuck throughout the years. And it's just one thing just
4:30
Speaker 3: started leading to another. But like I just had this
4:33
Speaker 3: crazy idea like I'm just going to be in stores,
4:35
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be on shelves, and without knowing exactly how
4:41
Speaker 3: that works or how to do that, I just failed
4:45
Speaker 3: forward for years until we made it happen.
4:49
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear about your wife. How long has
4:53
Speaker 1: it been there?
4:58
Speaker 3: Not even a year yet, I'm so sorry, Budge, but
5:02
Speaker 3: less than the year. Yeah, but me and I started
5:07
Speaker 3: to started as we started in our kitchen and inviting
5:15
Speaker 3: friends over for little house no house parties, cookouts that
5:19
Speaker 3: they just trying it out. Like it was just like,
5:21
Speaker 3: bring that bomb ass lemonade over. That's what kind of
5:26
Speaker 3: that's what kind of got the wheels turn and so
5:29
Speaker 3: to speak.
5:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is wild that like they had every other
5:32
Speaker 1: flavor of vodka at the time, but obviously like lemonade
5:35
Speaker 1: was something that just they didn't think about.
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Speaker 3: No, absolutely, and actually I wanted to make bombay was original.
5:45
Speaker 3: The original concept was an RTD but at the time
5:50
Speaker 3: RTDs wasn't a thing, right yep.
5:54
Speaker 2: But fast forward to twenty twenty six, RTDs.
5:58
Speaker 3: Is like the number one in the mark get it, yep,
6:02
Speaker 3: Like it's crazy, but that was kind of where the
6:05
Speaker 3: vision was in the beginning.
6:06
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's basically tequila bourbon and yeah, ready to
6:11
Speaker 1: drink or the number one selling in alcohol all the
6:15
Speaker 1: way around. Like it's absolutely crazy that those three are
6:18
Speaker 1: the only ones that are really still profiting. But like
6:21
Speaker 1: beer has been obviously gone down for so much, Wine's
6:24
Speaker 1: gone down so much, and like even the vodka category
6:27
Speaker 1: itself has gone down, and you're basically just helping people
6:30
Speaker 1: make it better.
6:32
Speaker 3: The vodka category has gone down, but it was number one,
6:36
Speaker 3: right that's recently and it's still above bourbon, but it
6:40
Speaker 3: is currently fighting neck connect with tequila, with tequila kind
6:44
Speaker 3: of running its place right now, but the category became
6:53
Speaker 3: just like to actually, what happened with vodka is kind
6:56
Speaker 3: of happening with tequila in real time, not to getting
6:59
Speaker 3: there with it, but it's the saturated market where everybody
7:03
Speaker 3: sees like, oh, this is what everybody's on, this is
7:07
Speaker 3: what I only drink right now, people, all that kind
7:11
Speaker 3: of stuff starts kicking in. Then you start having a
7:14
Speaker 3: whole plethora of tequila brands that really don't need to
7:18
Speaker 3: be out here, but they're here in more power to them.
7:21
Speaker 3: But it just goes to where it's like, uh, I'm
7:25
Speaker 3: rambling too, but I'm saying it's like the killer market
7:30
Speaker 3: is oversaturated right now. And that same thing happened with
7:34
Speaker 3: the vaka market about five to ten years ago.
7:38
Speaker 1: Now I think you're I mean, you're absolutely right with
7:40
Speaker 1: that because of the fact that, like how you just
7:43
Speaker 1: name a celebrity and they probably have a tequila. So
7:45
Speaker 1: at this point, like you said, there's just way too much.
7:48
Speaker 1: And then now we're even splitting it down further to
7:50
Speaker 1: where we have additives and non additives, which at the
7:54
Speaker 1: end of the day, tequila should be non additive. It's
7:57
Speaker 1: just literally three ingredients. But if you're adding more stuff
8:00
Speaker 1: to it, yes, like it's to too much.
8:04
Speaker 3: Yes, And you know, the brands is going to rise
8:08
Speaker 3: to the top because the market and they tend not
8:11
Speaker 3: to be necessarily the best quality product, but they got
8:16
Speaker 3: the best marketing, so people kind of tend to tend
8:20
Speaker 3: people kind of tend to fall for the marketing over
8:22
Speaker 3: quality a lot of the times too. So that's where
8:26
Speaker 3: you have those those brands with a lot of additives
8:29
Speaker 3: kind of kind of tape making its way or whatever
8:34
Speaker 3: in the space, leading the space until people start till
8:38
Speaker 3: the consumer like eventually catches on and it's like wait
8:42
Speaker 3: a minute, this ain't good. Yeah, exactly, but it takes
8:47
Speaker 3: a while, you know what I'm saying.
8:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I mean I've been in the wine world
8:51
Speaker 1: for you know, almost two decades now, and it's the
8:53
Speaker 1: same thing. Like people know about Barefoot. They know people
8:56
Speaker 1: still buy Phronsia, but it's like those aren't great wines.
8:59
Speaker 1: They just our wine basically, And so if you really
9:03
Speaker 1: want the good stuff, look for the stuff that actually
9:05
Speaker 1: has ears on it, or you know, sometimes you gotta
9:08
Speaker 1: spend a little extra money to get to the good stuff.
9:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, everything has the audience, even products m hm.
9:17
Speaker 3: So that people gonna like what they like, whether they're
9:20
Speaker 3: gonna they could love your product and hate something else,
9:23
Speaker 3: and vice versa, hates your product and love something else.
9:26
Speaker 3: That's just the world of having a tangible product, Like everybody's.
9:30
Speaker 2: Not going to love it. Mm hm.
9:33
Speaker 3: No, you're right, tribe of people that genuinely love it,
9:39
Speaker 3: and we're in the world now where you have to
9:42
Speaker 3: connect with them.
9:44
Speaker 1: Right, Well, how do you when you what was decision
9:48
Speaker 1: for y'all to actually go to market and make it
9:50
Speaker 1: to where people can actually buy this.
9:54
Speaker 2: I tell people, I'm a hustler by nature.
9:58
Speaker 3: I was getting old and I needed something to hustle,
10:03
Speaker 3: and that just it's just it was a lane that
10:05
Speaker 3: was wide open at the time. Wasn't there wasn't a
10:08
Speaker 3: lot of craft brands in the marketplace. Like what I
10:12
Speaker 3: was doing at the time was pioneer level type stuff honestly,
10:18
Speaker 3: not to to my own horm but it was not
10:21
Speaker 3: a crowded space for brands up for upstart brands.
10:26
Speaker 2: Like so.
10:30
Speaker 3: I was really just delusional thinking I could do this,
10:34
Speaker 3: I could do this, but I didn't you know what
10:36
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But that was the kind of the mind state,
10:40
Speaker 3: like I want to hustle some alcohol. Nobody's doing that, right.
10:47
Speaker 1: Where did you come up with the like, well, how
10:50
Speaker 1: many different you know, labels? Did you have to go through?
10:54
Speaker 1: What kind of what was a bottle process? Because obviously,
10:56
Speaker 1: you know when you're starting a brand, I mean you
10:58
Speaker 1: already had the name. It was just trying to find
11:00
Speaker 1: what bottle is gonna look like and then you know,
11:02
Speaker 1: obviously a label and the logo and everything.
11:05
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, good question.
11:10
Speaker 3: I tell people this version of their brand, what people
11:13
Speaker 3: what you see here now today with the yellow lemon
11:16
Speaker 3: on it and all of that, it's like the I
11:19
Speaker 3: want to say, like the fourth iteration of the of
11:24
Speaker 3: the bottle, Like we pivoted in the marketplace and real
11:28
Speaker 3: time as we kind of learned and was figuring stuff out.
11:33
Speaker 3: So my initial bottle coming out the gate was a
11:38
Speaker 3: cork bottle, shrink wrap, shrink wrappings, shrink wrap over the cork,
11:46
Speaker 3: and a clear label.
11:51
Speaker 2: And what I was finding out was using clear labels.
11:56
Speaker 3: Bottles are not perfect, surfaces are not perfect on bottom,
12:00
Speaker 3: so you use a clear label, those tend to show
12:05
Speaker 3: those imperfections a lot, and you have bubbles and all that.
12:10
Speaker 3: It's best to screenprint if you're going to use it,
12:12
Speaker 3: if you're going to do that or whatever. But again
12:15
Speaker 3: I had to learn in real time that it's best
12:18
Speaker 3: to screenprint. But doing screenprint has its home set of
12:22
Speaker 3: world problems as well that you just have to be
12:24
Speaker 3: prepared for. But so we was having issues with the
12:28
Speaker 3: first label because the bottles wasn't perfect.
12:31
Speaker 2: All right, cool.
12:32
Speaker 3: Then we decided, well, let's put a lemon on the
12:36
Speaker 3: clear label, keep the clear labeled, and let's put a
12:40
Speaker 3: lemon on it to give it more pop or whatever.
12:44
Speaker 3: That was the second version, and then so on and
12:47
Speaker 3: so forth. Then we went to the screwtop, Then we
12:50
Speaker 3: went to a more arm, then we went to the
12:54
Speaker 3: gold label and the gold caps or whatever, and where
12:57
Speaker 3: we're at right now, it was just like trial and
13:00
Speaker 3: never putting it in the marketplace, getting getting feedback in
13:05
Speaker 3: real time of what people liked and then like. And
13:08
Speaker 3: the good part about being a small brand was we
13:11
Speaker 3: was able to take our market We was getting market
13:14
Speaker 3: research in real time, and he was able to take
13:17
Speaker 3: that information and pivot and make the adjustments to where
13:21
Speaker 3: we're at right now. And I'm kind of I'm happy
13:25
Speaker 3: to say I'm proud of where we at with it now.
13:27
Speaker 3: Like I love our aesthetic, I love our look, and
13:31
Speaker 3: I love where we're going with it.
13:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, looking at the bottle, I can definitely
13:37
Speaker 1: tell this's going to pop out on shelves for people.
13:39
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like anything else that's really out on
13:41
Speaker 1: the market. And I love that you were able to
13:45
Speaker 1: listen to the feedback that you were getting. Actually, like
13:48
Speaker 1: you said, generally put it out in real time. A
13:49
Speaker 1: lot of people would be like, oh, they just don't
13:51
Speaker 1: get it, or no, this is my vision or this
13:53
Speaker 1: is the way I'm going to do it, and you're like, no,
13:55
Speaker 1: you listen to people because obviously they're the ones buying it,
13:58
Speaker 1: and they're the ones singing in the story. We're seeing
14:00
Speaker 1: on the shelves and saying, Okay, I want this, but
14:03
Speaker 1: I would like it if you guys did this or
14:04
Speaker 1: maybe this or whatever it is.
14:06
Speaker 3: Right exactly, that's pretty pretty much. Plus again, it's it's
14:11
Speaker 3: way harder to I'm trying to say, is it's way
14:17
Speaker 3: harder to steer. Uh, it's way easier to stay a
14:22
Speaker 3: speed boat as opposed to a submarine or a big
14:24
Speaker 3: ass ship. Like when you when you got a small operation,
14:28
Speaker 3: a small, small outfit, you able to make turns and
14:32
Speaker 3: do what you gotta do kind of quicker as opposed
14:34
Speaker 3: if it was millions of bottles in the market, we
14:39
Speaker 3: would kind of be stuck with that aesthetic until we
14:41
Speaker 3: cycle through what we have a cycle through, so right,
14:46
Speaker 3: kind of first, I guess you would say.
14:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean you look at these massive companies
14:51
Speaker 1: and like you said, once they do a label change,
14:53
Speaker 1: it takes a long time for now with the new
14:56
Speaker 1: label to come in, but the old ones kind of
14:58
Speaker 1: filter out from the shelf and so that that way,
15:00
Speaker 1: then you realize, oh, that's what the new label looks like,
15:03
Speaker 1: and this is what it all of them looks like.
15:04
Speaker 1: But like you said, you were small enough or you
15:06
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about that.
15:08
Speaker 3: No, not just in my main market, but it wasn't
15:13
Speaker 3: it wasn't an issue or whatever. So and this was
15:17
Speaker 3: a brand that when we initiated this thing social media
15:25
Speaker 3: was becoming, wasn't what it is today. It wasn't it
15:28
Speaker 3: wasn't what it is today at the time, and in
15:30
Speaker 3: twenty I would say, it's that twenty seven, eight oh
15:38
Speaker 3: nine when we really first started it and was just
15:42
Speaker 3: doing it like moonshine and so like, it was just
15:48
Speaker 3: like yo, social media. It was the wild wild West
15:51
Speaker 3: and so many aspects to put it like that, right, So.
15:58
Speaker 1: I love that because you're right. Back then it was
16:01
Speaker 1: literally a word of mouth. You had to probably plant
16:04
Speaker 1: out flyers if you're going to do a release party
16:06
Speaker 1: or anything. And it wasn't like you said, it wasn't
16:10
Speaker 1: like there was no influences back then. Nobody thought, oh wait,
16:13
Speaker 1: I could actually get paid to do stuff online and
16:17
Speaker 1: just talk about.
16:17
Speaker 3: A product as No, and that was my way of
16:22
Speaker 3: getting it out there was through parties. Honestly, we would
16:27
Speaker 3: throw parties, have artists whatever, whatever. But the main thing
16:32
Speaker 3: was it was we didn't have a liquor license or
16:35
Speaker 3: it wasn't an open bar or I mean it was
16:37
Speaker 3: an open bar, so pay at the door, come in
16:42
Speaker 3: all you can drink until we run out.
16:45
Speaker 2: That was it.
16:47
Speaker 3: Bomb made one of the features of the party, so
16:51
Speaker 3: it kind of created like a cult following, like if
16:56
Speaker 3: you knew you knew the type thing, that's how that's
16:59
Speaker 3: how we start it out and kind of build built
17:03
Speaker 3: our name.
17:05
Speaker 2: Initially before we was on shelves.
17:09
Speaker 1: I imagine the parties were kind of that way too.
17:10
Speaker 1: It's one of those if you know, you know, and
17:12
Speaker 1: then once you're there, then you know that you can
17:15
Speaker 1: get some vombited yes.
17:17
Speaker 3: Yes, And it was being promoted by bombings, so it
17:22
Speaker 3: was always like a thing I kind of know, all
17:26
Speaker 3: such that's going to be there.
17:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're gonna have bombing. We can drink that or whatever.
17:30
Speaker 3: Like it would go like every party, we would not
17:34
Speaker 3: have any left, like it would always go and people
17:37
Speaker 3: would just always love it.
17:39
Speaker 2: So it was like, oh, I think we might have
17:41
Speaker 2: something here.
17:43
Speaker 1: Now what kind of cocktails do you normally try to
17:45
Speaker 1: make with it? Because obviously you can. I mean, like
17:47
Speaker 1: you said, you're really kind of going for the ready
17:49
Speaker 1: to drink right out the bat, but you know, you
17:52
Speaker 1: can just drink this straight if you wanted to, because
17:54
Speaker 1: like you guys have been doing it for the longest
17:56
Speaker 1: time before you even made it big for other people.
17:59
Speaker 1: What kind of cocktails do you start making now with?
18:03
Speaker 3: I mean, I keep it simple and just say lemon
18:07
Speaker 3: drops is like this number in the club or lounge
18:11
Speaker 3: or whatever, like that's what it is.
18:13
Speaker 2: But honestly, ice, you can mix it with ice and
18:19
Speaker 2: you good to go. Like, you don't have to.
18:22
Speaker 3: Firm believer of you can make anything taste good if
18:26
Speaker 3: you mix it right. So, like the real taste is
18:29
Speaker 3: when you when the real test rather is when you
18:31
Speaker 3: do it need chilled that separates the crank, that the
18:37
Speaker 3: cream rises to the top when you do it that way.
18:39
Speaker 2: In my opinion, love that.
18:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, keep it simple absolutely well, Nelly, do you have
18:48
Speaker 1: the social media? How are you enjoying you know, really
18:52
Speaker 1: putting these videos together? And obviously the attention you guys
18:55
Speaker 1: are getting off social media.
19:01
Speaker 2: Social media to me is a it's a love hate relationship.
19:09
Speaker 2: You're not wrong because.
19:11
Speaker 4: You you have I have you have a you have
19:17
Speaker 4: it the way you kind of try to stay consistent
19:20
Speaker 4: in content posting.
19:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I kind of started out with.
19:27
Speaker 3: A lot of my following started out initially of people
19:32
Speaker 3: that know me personally, and it just you just find I.
19:39
Speaker 2: See all I have to say.
19:40
Speaker 3: I kind of off social media and just put more
19:43
Speaker 3: money into advertising on social media. So like, I want
19:47
Speaker 3: the same content, good content, but I want to put
19:49
Speaker 3: that content in front of different and new eyeballs all
19:53
Speaker 3: the time. I want to just consistently post in front
19:57
Speaker 3: of people that's following my page and been fire on
20:00
Speaker 3: it for years, because that's when you get the thumb
20:03
Speaker 3: reactions from them, like they're just scrolling like we know
20:07
Speaker 3: you got a voka, we know you're doing that. Okay,
20:09
Speaker 3: you know already like yeah, you know, and it don't
20:12
Speaker 3: mean nothing to you. But if I put this in
20:14
Speaker 3: front of somebody else that never seen it before, they like,
20:17
Speaker 3: what's going on?
20:18
Speaker 2: What is it? Right?
20:20
Speaker 3: I cannot get it? So that's kind of that's kind
20:23
Speaker 3: of my long winded love and hate.
20:29
Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's how it got in front of
20:31
Speaker 1: my eye about my eyeballs. It was just one of
20:33
Speaker 1: those things on Instagram. I was like, oh, what is
20:34
Speaker 1: this and then now we're.
20:36
Speaker 2: Here, see exactly that's the algorithm, yes.
20:44
Speaker 1: Which you can obviously, like you know, try to skew
20:46
Speaker 1: it as much as you want. That algorithm is gonna.
20:48
Speaker 3: Algorithm exactly exactly we're in. We're in it now, like
20:55
Speaker 3: I can't even escape it no more. You can't even
20:58
Speaker 3: say you're off the grid anymore. Like literally made it
21:02
Speaker 3: virtually impossible to be off the grid and nowadays, so
21:06
Speaker 3: embrace it. This is the world we know now, this
21:08
Speaker 3: is the world our kids know. They don't know of
21:11
Speaker 3: the world.
21:12
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I was listening to something the other day
21:15
Speaker 1: and about how kids just don't know about boredom anymore.
21:18
Speaker 1: And honestly, like us as adults almost also don't know
21:21
Speaker 1: about borederm anymore because we will be watching something or
21:26
Speaker 1: listening to something and then you know, all of a sudden,
21:28
Speaker 1: we're pulling our phone out, or if we're in line
21:30
Speaker 1: or at a doctor's office or whatever it is. Kids
21:33
Speaker 1: have no idea what bored them is.
21:36
Speaker 3: People have no idea what it's like to be outside
21:40
Speaker 3: without being able to being able to have that connection
21:44
Speaker 3: like outside without a phone and people it's a world
21:48
Speaker 3: of people that don't know what is adults that have
21:52
Speaker 3: no idea what that's like, Like what do you mean
21:54
Speaker 3: being outside? Like how do you leave the house without
21:57
Speaker 3: a phone. Like, yeah, it was times where you just
21:59
Speaker 3: have to be outside with amongst your friends and your
22:04
Speaker 3: parents just like knew you was outside and you knew
22:07
Speaker 3: that you had to be home by nine o'clock. You know,
22:11
Speaker 3: that was it. That was how you That's that's how
22:13
Speaker 3: we rolled back then. So it was like a whole
22:15
Speaker 3: other world, whole out the world as compared to what
22:18
Speaker 3: it is now.
22:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you really look forward to summertime because
22:22
Speaker 1: the you know, it didn't get really dark until about
22:25
Speaker 1: nine o'clock anyway, and so that's when you're like, all
22:27
Speaker 1: right that this is definitely time.
22:28
Speaker 2: I gotta get home right now.
22:30
Speaker 3: You can you can get a text and like, okay,
22:33
Speaker 3: where you atr You got it all all right, But
22:36
Speaker 3: before you was just outside for hours, m.
22:41
Speaker 2: Plan, having fun, just getting in trouble, just doing stuff.
22:46
Speaker 2: So I don't want to.
22:48
Speaker 3: I guess we're in a different world. I'm just trying
22:50
Speaker 3: to adjust to it.
22:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think that's hopefully we all are
22:54
Speaker 1: trying to adjust to it, and you know, just one
22:56
Speaker 1: little bit better every day.
22:58
Speaker 2: Uh huh, well said we not that? Go ahead? No, God,
23:06
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
23:06
Speaker 1: There you're find man. Uh So what how has it
23:09
Speaker 1: been now that you have actually been on the shelves
23:11
Speaker 1: for a long time. Now, how how many states you
23:14
Speaker 1: guys in and what's the Finding a distribution is not
23:18
Speaker 1: the easiest part because there's so many of these big
23:21
Speaker 1: distributors that you know, you can kind of get lost
23:24
Speaker 1: in the shuffle. And so how has it been kind
23:27
Speaker 1: of finding a distributor and then also you know, getting
23:30
Speaker 1: into different states.
23:33
Speaker 3: Let's see, good question. I would say distributors don't find you.
23:41
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't find distributors, they find you.
23:46
Speaker 2: It's like you do trade shows, you do conventions, and.
23:54
Speaker 3: They all in one place and they just fall in
23:57
Speaker 3: love with your product or they might everything.
24:00
Speaker 2: That's a small industry.
24:01
Speaker 3: It's a big industry in the small industry at the
24:03
Speaker 3: same time. So people so they're like, yeah, John, I'm
24:07
Speaker 3: doing I'm selling a lot of this product over here
24:10
Speaker 3: in this city. Blah blah blah. That makes that makes
24:14
Speaker 3: Jean picture to his whatever, his team or whatever and
24:18
Speaker 3: want to bring that product in and give it and
24:20
Speaker 3: give it a flyer and see what they can do.
24:22
Speaker 3: So a lot of it be word of mouth and
24:25
Speaker 3: be a lick of the lips. I tell people they like, Yo,
24:28
Speaker 3: they just tried it, they liked the product, and they
24:30
Speaker 3: wanted to they wanted to carry it.
24:33
Speaker 2: That's how it used to be. Now you kind of.
24:37
Speaker 3: They want to know what you what's your marketing budget
24:39
Speaker 3: is particular market before I invest into bringing you into
24:45
Speaker 3: the market. I can't say they're wrong for that approach
24:51
Speaker 3: if I mean I was, if I was in their position,
24:54
Speaker 3: I would probably take that same approach.
24:56
Speaker 2: So it's just.
24:57
Speaker 3: Again dealing with time changing in real time and it
25:04
Speaker 3: being coming more of a like a wild Wild West situation.
25:09
Speaker 3: Just figuring that out, figuring it, figuring it out as
25:13
Speaker 3: we go. But I'm eleven years in, so I tell
25:18
Speaker 3: people that if there's a concept to prove, I'm pretty
25:23
Speaker 3: much proven it off with wits in tips, so to speak.
25:30
Speaker 3: Like just again, we had just been in the marketplace,
25:34
Speaker 3: had no idea how to sell alcohol legally in the
25:38
Speaker 3: marketplace to where we are now eleven years later, and
25:42
Speaker 3: I've seen brands come and go with a hell of
25:46
Speaker 3: a lot more resources than we have. So I'm kind
25:50
Speaker 3: of I'm proud of what we're able to accomplish, and
25:53
Speaker 3: that just comes from genuinely having a good product. It's
25:56
Speaker 3: my brand, So of course I'm going to say that,
25:59
Speaker 3: but people speak for it, like we have a genuinely
26:04
Speaker 3: great brand that people really embrace and support.
26:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, that's
26:10
Speaker 1: what you're Like, you said, eleven years you're still here.
26:13
Speaker 1: If you weren't any good, you wouldn't have lasted as
26:16
Speaker 1: long at all. So that, yeah, like you said, that's
26:21
Speaker 1: the huge tell tale of oh, this is obviously a
26:24
Speaker 1: good product and people were behind it because otherwise you
26:27
Speaker 1: got to you do have been bankrupt a long time.
26:29
Speaker 2: Ago, exactly, exactly exactly.
26:34
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's just and you know what, it's not
26:41
Speaker 3: the destination. Actually, it's the journey that I'm enjoyed, like
26:44
Speaker 3: learning the business on the flag and getting sharing my problem,
26:52
Speaker 3: sharing my solutions.
26:54
Speaker 2: People coming into the industry.
26:59
Speaker 3: In the ass five to seven whatever years and like
27:05
Speaker 3: hollering at me, and you know.
27:07
Speaker 2: I'm sharing information. I'm not an information order.
27:10
Speaker 3: So if I could tell you something that could help you,
27:14
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you. I'm not gonna hold that information
27:16
Speaker 3: to myself, Like what's the point of that. So it's
27:20
Speaker 3: just like when they come into me asking me, so
27:24
Speaker 3: I'm like.
27:25
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, you can do this.
27:26
Speaker 3: You can do this like welcome, welcome to the industry,
27:29
Speaker 3: and have you went to this place?
27:31
Speaker 2: Have you gone this?
27:31
Speaker 3: And it's community creating in this new world of ours
27:39
Speaker 3: and it's dope.
27:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you said, there's a lot of people that
27:43
Speaker 1: do the gateway, you know, gatekeeping when it comes to information,
27:47
Speaker 1: and there shouldn't be you know, like these people who
27:52
Speaker 1: are doing it, they needed help at some point. So
27:54
Speaker 1: why are you doing that to other people when probably
27:57
Speaker 1: no one did that to you.
27:59
Speaker 3: Absolutely, like it's information like on hoardered like share it like.
28:05
Speaker 2: Yes, share it?
28:07
Speaker 1: Well, So who are some people that kind of helped
28:09
Speaker 1: you out when you were coming up figuring trying to
28:11
Speaker 1: figure everything all this figuring all this out, because figuring
28:14
Speaker 1: out alcohol laws not only in one state but multiple states,
28:17
Speaker 1: and what you can and can't put on labels and
28:19
Speaker 1: all this other stuff is a huge thing that a
28:21
Speaker 1: lot of people don't think about.
28:25
Speaker 3: My business partner preachers, Uh, that's part of my origin
28:30
Speaker 3: story that I kind of skipped over. But I was
28:33
Speaker 3: doing my thing out the trunk on the street level,
28:37
Speaker 3: throwing the parties, and then I had the bright idea
28:40
Speaker 3: to just start calling distilleries.
28:43
Speaker 2: Well one of the distilleries.
28:45
Speaker 3: That I called was Phil Pritcher's distillery out of Kelso, Tennessee.
28:53
Speaker 3: I spoke to him, had a conversation with him, and
28:56
Speaker 3: he didn't he didn't shut me down, but he and
29:00
Speaker 3: say yes, see, it was like a conversation that kind
29:03
Speaker 3: of started a relationship first that two years later he's like,
29:10
Speaker 3: you know what, come on down to Tennessee and come
29:13
Speaker 3: pay me a visit and bring bring me bring bring
29:16
Speaker 3: a sample of what you got going on. This is
29:19
Speaker 3: two years of us talking and building and just relationship building,
29:24
Speaker 3: but me still in the street throwing parties and saying
29:28
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be in stored soon, coming soon. That was like,
29:31
Speaker 3: I'm one of my marketing things coming soon. I had
29:34
Speaker 3: no idea what how I was going to get there,
29:38
Speaker 3: But it's coming soon though, I.
29:41
Speaker 1: Mean, you're putting it out in the universe. It was
29:42
Speaker 1: going to happen.
29:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, manifestation. But that's you say.
29:49
Speaker 3: Who helped me in the game and who like gave
29:51
Speaker 3: me a lot of the education was Phil Pretcher, who's
29:54
Speaker 3: my business my manufacturing partner to this day, my business
29:57
Speaker 3: partner to this day. And he had has about ten
30:03
Speaker 3: different skills and he's like really really big in the
30:09
Speaker 3: bourbon whiskey space. Oh, very very big in that space.
30:15
Speaker 3: And he didn't want it. He didn't want to get
30:18
Speaker 3: into the vodka. I kind of talked him into getting
30:22
Speaker 3: into the vodka space, and the rest is kind of history.
30:29
Speaker 3: But you'll see you'll see on my bottle it says
30:33
Speaker 3: bottled and distilled in Kelso, Tennessee, at the Preacher's Manufacturing facility.
30:41
Speaker 1: That's huge.
30:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:43
Speaker 1: Finding an actual distiller to help you out there is,
30:45
Speaker 1: I imagine, was a giant weight off your shoulders.
30:48
Speaker 2: Master distiller too, like master destillers.
30:52
Speaker 3: Like he's like a Michelin chef when it comes to
30:56
Speaker 3: alcohol though, like chef's kiss on the alcohol or whatever
31:01
Speaker 3: the alcohol version of chef's kiss is.
31:06
Speaker 2: That's Phiel Pritcher.
31:10
Speaker 1: I love that well. So I mean we're you know,
31:14
Speaker 1: like you said, you're eleven years in. Now, what does
31:17
Speaker 1: what does it look like for you to be fifteen
31:19
Speaker 1: twenty years in?
31:21
Speaker 3: It looks like scale, Like I've spent a lot of
31:24
Speaker 3: the time these years, Like of course life, LIFs and
31:29
Speaker 3: all of that stuff. You're learning as you're figuring it out.
31:33
Speaker 3: You're figuring out what works and you're figuring out what
31:35
Speaker 3: doesn't work. But now it's like, let's let's scale. I'm
31:41
Speaker 3: we've been self funded the entire time.
31:44
Speaker 2: So now.
31:46
Speaker 3: With being the pro and con of that is a
31:49
Speaker 3: way every hat I know everything that needs to be done.
31:52
Speaker 3: But the con of that is doing everything like putting
31:58
Speaker 3: that dream team together, like minded individuals that got one
32:04
Speaker 3: goal in mind, and that's like market share in the
32:09
Speaker 3: space where it's wide open for market share. So that's
32:14
Speaker 3: kind of like my more than my fifteen le's fifteen
32:19
Speaker 3: to twenty years playing like scale if I could put
32:23
Speaker 3: it in one word scale.
32:25
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense, yeah, because I mean every liquor
32:28
Speaker 1: store only has so much shelf space and so making
32:30
Speaker 1: sure you're staying on the shelves is a huge thing.
32:34
Speaker 3: And going beyond the liquor store conversation and getting more
32:41
Speaker 3: into the e commerce of alcohol.
32:44
Speaker 2: We're here now Like.
32:46
Speaker 3: When initially started, you would the price and then the shipping.
32:51
Speaker 2: It's like eye it was kind of.
32:55
Speaker 3: It was kind of scare people off, but now we're
32:58
Speaker 3: in the lazy ship, clicking ship market with like people
33:04
Speaker 3: want stuff at their doorstep now and they don't mind
33:06
Speaker 3: paying whatever they gotta get paid.
33:09
Speaker 2: To have it come to their doorstep.
33:11
Speaker 3: And I'm part of that fifteen and twenty year new plan,
33:16
Speaker 3: not new plan, but part of that is to embrace
33:19
Speaker 3: that e commerce market and like get get get out
33:23
Speaker 3: there and do that because we're in the economy of
33:27
Speaker 3: that right now.
33:28
Speaker 2: Like between just.
33:31
Speaker 3: Food being left at your door, grocery groceries being left
33:34
Speaker 3: at alcohol is going to be left at your door,
33:38
Speaker 3: Like that's just where you're at now.
33:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not wrong people doing on Amazon people there's
33:45
Speaker 1: different alcohol distributing or not distributing, but delivery services as well.
33:51
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're definitely not far off if unless your state.
33:54
Speaker 3: Already has it exactly and it's ships yeah, okay, it
34:00
Speaker 3: in two days, boom, it's at your front door, signed
34:04
Speaker 3: for you got it?
34:05
Speaker 2: Like they don't.
34:06
Speaker 3: My Well, that's what I'm saying, Like from ten eleven
34:11
Speaker 3: years ago to right now.
34:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like night and day.
34:14
Speaker 3: Like I can't believe it if I wasn't here to
34:18
Speaker 3: see how it was before we were we are where
34:20
Speaker 3: we're at now.
34:22
Speaker 2: It's just how people would just embrace the laziness. Coach.
34:31
Speaker 2: I love it though, like let's get it. Yeah, it's working, yes, yes, sir, well.
34:38
Speaker 1: I have a second on the show I called the
34:39
Speaker 1: five Counts, just five random questions.
34:42
Speaker 2: Okay.
34:43
Speaker 1: Number one, who is your first concert?
34:46
Speaker 2: Who was my first concert? It was Diana Ross and
34:52
Speaker 2: Central Park, damn in the eighties.
34:57
Speaker 1: I remember hearing about that show and I heard it
34:59
Speaker 1: was it's amazing.
35:02
Speaker 3: I didn't know what was going on, but I just
35:05
Speaker 3: know it was a lot of people and I was
35:07
Speaker 3: just happy to be happy there.
35:12
Speaker 2: That was my first concert.
35:14
Speaker 1: That's wild, all right. And number two, if you were
35:17
Speaker 1: a progresser or MMA fighter, what would your name.
35:19
Speaker 2: Be if I was a pro wrestler?
35:26
Speaker 1: Mmm?
35:29
Speaker 2: I don't know about that.
35:30
Speaker 3: One because all I could think about is like the
35:35
Speaker 3: wrestlers when I was growing up as those names or whatever,
35:38
Speaker 3: like Coo, Kobe Wed junk Yard and people I Ain't
35:47
Speaker 3: Chic and match your Man Your Man, Yeah, something around that.
35:56
Speaker 3: I don't know, but it would be some type of
35:59
Speaker 3: spin off, a derivative of Macho Macho Man that was
36:03
Speaker 3: like one of my favorite wrestlers growing up.
36:06
Speaker 2: Love that now.
36:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's an icon, I get it. Number three, what
36:11
Speaker 1: are you nerding out on right now?
36:14
Speaker 2: What am I nerding out on right now? Currently?
36:17
Speaker 3: I'm nerding out on Meta Quest the Oculus game. I'm
36:24
Speaker 3: nerding out on that right now.
36:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:27
Speaker 3: I'm nerding out on that. It's just like how it's
36:33
Speaker 3: just this is crazy, how where we at with video
36:36
Speaker 3: game man? Like I'm a I'm an Atari baby, like
36:41
Speaker 3: I had.
36:42
Speaker 1: A Notari grown up too, sorry six hundreds.
36:47
Speaker 3: So it's like to go from NAT to Nintendo to this,
36:50
Speaker 3: it's like to where we at now, the interaction and
36:54
Speaker 3: just like you mix the Internet and the web with it.
36:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm nerding out on that right now.
37:00
Speaker 3: Just the possible, the limitless possibilities of what that is
37:05
Speaker 3: right now, that got that got me nerded out on
37:08
Speaker 3: the late night playing video games again. I haven't played
37:12
Speaker 3: video games since you know, and in over twenty years,
37:17
Speaker 3: but that that got me back gaming.
37:20
Speaker 1: There you go, Hey, he got your back. That's all
37:22
Speaker 1: I needed, right. Number four, who are what inspires you?
37:31
Speaker 3: The underdog is the what that inspires me? The who
37:36
Speaker 3: that inspires me is just it's not one person. It's
37:39
Speaker 3: just a h a gulage of different people. So it's
37:47
Speaker 3: not like one person I can say, so to speak, but.
37:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's perfect. And number five what would you tell
37:56
Speaker 1: your seventeen year old.
37:57
Speaker 2: Self, don't sell ladin. I'm just playing. Uh shoot, oh man.
38:09
Speaker 3: What would I tell my seventeen year old self is
38:15
Speaker 3: to start now all your dreams and aspirations and all
38:23
Speaker 3: of that stuff, like have the fun you're gonna have
38:26
Speaker 3: the next ten years, because the next ten years.
38:28
Speaker 2: Is gonna be a blast. But start now, like the fun.
38:35
Speaker 3: You haven't learn financial literacy now so you can implement
38:41
Speaker 3: it at twenty two as opposed implement it at thirty two.
38:46
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
38:48
Speaker 1: That's true. Now, I've loved this conversation and I can't
38:51
Speaker 1: wait to try bombade myself. So Jermaine, I want to
38:54
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the show, and
38:55
Speaker 1: everybody definitely make sure to go out and get some
38:57
Speaker 1: bombited without a doubt.
38:58
Speaker 2: No absolutely Uh hit us up on social media.
39:04
Speaker 3: Bomb A vodka all everything, bomb a B O M
39:08
Speaker 3: A D. That's us. That's that's where it's sad. It's
39:12
Speaker 3: a lemonade infuse vodka. It's the best lemonade infuse vodka
39:16
Speaker 3: in the world. Links and links to purchase is right there,
39:21
Speaker 3: click and ship.
39:22
Speaker 2: We got you.
39:35
Speaker 1: Thank you so much of Jermaine for me on the
39:36
Speaker 1: show again. Definitely make sure to get yourself some Bombade vodka.
39:39
Speaker 1: If you do not have this in your liquor store
39:42
Speaker 1: or your local store wherever you get your vodka at,
39:45
Speaker 1: definitely ask for it by name. Make sure they get
39:47
Speaker 1: it in the stores, on the shelves, and obviously in
39:50
Speaker 1: your fridge. Because this stuff is so good. Drink it straight,
39:53
Speaker 1: mix it with whatever you want. It's absolutely phenomenal. You're
39:56
Speaker 1: definitely gonna want to try something. So while you're finding
39:59
Speaker 1: and following I made vodka online, why don't you go
40:01
Speaker 1: ahead and follow us at bruisers Pod. That is b
40:04
Speaker 1: R e W S t R S p O D
40:06
Speaker 1: on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter. If you
40:09
Speaker 1: want to send us an email, it is Bruisespod at
40:11
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. If you're gonna follow me directly, it
40:13
Speaker 1: is Roady John. That is our O D E j
40:16
Speaker 1: O N. Roddy John is the name on the Twitter
40:18
Speaker 1: and untapped in case you want to find ou when
40:19
Speaker 1: I'm drinking, maybe we have a beer together. If you're
40:21
Speaker 1: gonna follow me on the threads or the Instagram, it
40:24
Speaker 1: is official Rody John. So until next time, make sure
40:27
Speaker 1: to enjoy life, drink local. Cheers